WELFARE
USA | 1975 | 16mm | 167 min.
Director: Frederick Wiseman
In a government assistance office in 1970s New York City, workers try to explain a maze of rules and requirements to desperate people who find themselves shuffled between offices with little to show for it. With unflinching attention on prolonged, circular interviews, Wiseman observes a bureaucracy that can be just as frustrating and unmoving for its employees as the people who need their help. Welfare is a compelling study of a complicated American system that puzzles and discourages its citizens as often as it fulfills its purpose.